


The Process, the Expression, and the State

by AstroGirl



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Angels and Demons, Endearments, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 08:34:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27847790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstroGirl/pseuds/AstroGirl
Summary: Endearment (noun): 1. The act or process of endearing, of causing (something or someone) to be loved or to be the object of affection. 2. The state or characteristic of being endeared.  3. An expression of affection.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 35
Collections: fandomtrees





	The Process, the Expression, and the State

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bookgazing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookgazing/gifts).



> Written for fandomtrees, for bookgazing, who requested "anything based around Crowley using 'angel' as an endearment."

It starts out not meaning much of anything. The angel _is_ an angel, after all. So it only makes sense to call him that. Especially since his name is long and annoying. Four syllables? That's far too much work. Crowley is a demon who believes very firmly in avoiding work, unless he can't get out of it, or it's fun. Anyway, did the angel even properly introduce himself in the beginning? Crowley may have started calling him that before he even learned his name. He can't quite remember.

Really, if anything, his use of the word was almost a little snarky, in the beginning. A bit pointed, anyway. A way of emphasizing the difference between them. _You're_ an angel. _I'm_ a demon. I know you're not going to let me forget it, so I won't let _you_ forget it first.

Except the heaven of it is that Aziraphale _does_ let him forget it. More and more often, as time goes on. Oh, he always reminds them eventually. Always comes around to mouthing the pious words, toeing the party line. But he never quite says those things like he _believes_ them. And in between... 

In between, sometimes, they aren't an angel and a demon. They're just... _them_. Aziraphale and Crowley. Two beings who have more in common than anyone else on Earth.

And somewhere in that long, long span of time, in the midst of all that forgetting, the word slowly changes into something else. Not a statement of fact. Not a statement of difference. Eventually "angel" no longer means _angel_ , not really. In Crowley's mind, what it means is _Aziraphale_. It means all the things he thinks and feels about Aziraphale, and cannot say in any other words.

What it isn't, is a human endearment. Not for a long time. Not while the humans still remember angels as strange, fearsome things whose announced appearance usually spells bad news for someone. 

So the first time he hears it used that way, one human to another, it startles him.

No. No, that isn't true. The first time, he barely notices, it feels so normal, so familiar. It's the second time, when he stops to think about it, that it takes him aback. It makes him feel weirdly defensive, too, as if the they've stolen something from him. Which is ridiculous.

Or as if they're on to him, somehow, which is even more so.

Probably he ought to give it up. But he doesn't. Of course he doesn't. Screw the humans and their constantly changing linguistic habits. He was here first.

So, "angel," he says, still, when it's a word for lovers and family, when it means intimacy and adoration and everyone around him knows it. "Angel," he says, just as he has for millennia.

And, just as _he_ has for millennia, the angel answers him with a smile so full of glowing affection that no one with eyes, snaky or otherwise, could possibly fail to miss it. 

Which, honestly, probably just makes them even.


End file.
